Originally Posted by
Kung Lek
Hi-
There are five main "families" of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.
Cha and Hong are the most prevalent today.
(Hong being Sil Lum).
Bak Sil Lum or North Shaolin of Kuo Yuo Cheong is said to be most intact with its system maintained in entirety. it contains two preliminary sets and 10 core sets.
The system takes about 5 to 10 years to learn dependent upon the students adeptness and about another 5 or 10 years to gain mastery of.
Bak Sil Lum is the system I am most familiar with as it is the Northern system my Si fu is giving me.
It is quite difficult to perform even the 2 beginner core sets (Tun Ta and Moi Fa) but there is a lot of info that is good in the prelim sets which are Lien Bo Chuan and Tan Tui (10 row).
Lien Bo and Tan Tui introduce the practitioner/student to some of the concepts held further into the system.
Kung Lek